Friday, October 31, 2014

A light freeze is predicted for this weekend, so it's time to dig our sweet potato crop. They say the potatoes will rot if left in the ground for very long after the tops freeze back. I don't really know if that is true or not. We always dig when a freeze is predicted or right after the green tops are nipped by a freeze.

Jo is removing wire row covers so we can get to the bed. It may look as if she's dancing, but her arms are wrapped around a welded wire tunnel. The way the sweet potato vines are trimmed back to the wire shows why the wire covers are necessary. Rabbits and/or deer would feast on the green sweet potato vines if they were not covered.

We had a mediocre sweet potato harvest this year: A little over 47# from thirty feet of garden bed. There was quite a bit of rodent damage, but there always is. I don't know how to fence out mice and voles.